I am taking the boat out of Herrington Harbour North this afternoon and am a little bit perplexed by the forecast(s). I'm wondering if anyone could shed some light on this, as I always try to keep an eye on the weather.

- NWS says there is a small craft advisory in effect through late tonight from Sandy Point to North Beach. To my recollection, an SMA is triggered between 22-33 knot winds.

Small craft advisory numbers are localized. So may be one thing outside of the Chesapeake, they may not be the same in the Chesapeake area. Each local NWS station around the country determines what they consider the wind speed/wave height combination should be for a SCA in their specific area.

At least, that's what was told to us at the weather seminar I took with a NWS forecaster.

- NWS says there is a small craft advisory in effect through late tonight from Sandy Point to North Beach. To my recollection, an SMA is triggered between 22-33 knot winds...
As you can see, there is a good degree of contradiction here. Which model should I trust?

There is no contradiction. The NOAA weather radio Small Craft Advisory is issued in advance of the SCA conditions and does not necessarily reflect current conditions. The weather synopsis portion of the forecast informs us that high pressure is steadily moving into this area through tonight. The wind speed range is predicted to increase another 5 knots this afternoon and evening from 10-15 knots to 15 to 20 knots - that is the basis for the SCA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EuroboyDC

Also, given the circumstances, would you go out with a reef on a 30' O'Day 302 or just go full canvas?

I would not head out with a reef in the main in those conditions, but I would be more conservative in my jib choice with predicted increase in wind speed.

I head out plannng to use a full main, usually, then I judge the headsail by the conditions. You can always ease the main to reef once the jib is up. I usually rig everything in the marina for ease of possible use: jib sheets, whisker pole, spinnaker pole, spin sheets, turning blocks, unless I am only going for a short sail. On a number of occasions, it gets stowed without being used that day.

The definition of SCA depends on the area (google it). On the Chesapeake and Potomac it is :

Small Craft Advisory

Small Craft Advisories are issued for the Tidal Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay when one or both of the following conditions is expected to begin within 36 hours:

1) sustained winds of 18 knots to 33 knots

OR

2) frequent gusts (duration of two or more hours) between 18 knots and 33 knots.

OR

3) waves of 4 feet or higher

Second, you really need to use NOAA wind speeds. Yes, this was a minimal SCA. Additionally, your feeling on the subject might be different at the mouth of the Potomac in a sailing dingy with a green crew. It is just an advisory. For cruising boats it mostly means clear the table, just in case.

Thank you all for the additional feedback and info. As for the localized SCA parameters - I learned something new again. I do Google just about everything, but this didn't pop up.

Three hours to sailtime now, so we'll see how it goes. I do like the idea of putting up the full main and gauging the jib. Thankfully, I can just furl/unfurl the genny as needed. It'll help to have crew onboard this time, too. I took out a Catalina 27 on Cinco de Mayo, and that was a bit of a pain to single-hand that day.

For what it's worth, I'll post how it went afterwards - assuming I remember to do so, as the post-sail activities will involve watching the Caps in Game 7 at Calypso. (Sorry, Rangers fans)

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.